Five Bangladeshi tourists sent for Covid-19 tests in Odisha

Five Bangladeshi nationals, all of a family, were on Friday sent to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack from Kendrapara district for COVID-19 tests.

Based on local feedback, the Jamboo marine police traced the foreign nationals, including a 7-year-old boy, in a village in Mahakalpada area on Thursday, a senior official said.

The tourists, all bonafide residents of Satakhira district in Bangladesh, were found travelling with valid passports and visas, said Kedrapara Collector Samarth Verma.

Though they had landed here on March 17, they skipped the online registration process in the state government's COVID-19 registration portal, he said.

It has been made mandatory by the government, Verma said.

They should have gone for self-isolation for 14 days upon arrival to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. But they did not, he added.

After preliminary health checkup at the hospital, the foreign nationals did not show any symptoms of COVID-19, he added.